A Motherboard for an i5 8400 or i5 8600K

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vultusprime

Member
May 28, 2011
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Hello everyone, I am in the process of buying a new desktop. It will be used mostly as a gaming pc, with some occasional light video editing. My monitor is a 22” therefore, gaming will be at 1080p. My budget is between 1300-1400US$(max).
I would really appreciate some advice.

CPU

The choice is between:

Intel Core i5-8400 Coffee Lake 6-Core 2.8 GHz (4.0 GHz Turbo) LGA 1151 (300 Series) 65W BX80684I58400 Desktop Processor Intel UHD Graphics 630

Intel Core i5-8600K Coffee Lake 6-Core 3.6 GHz (4.3 GHz Turbo) LGA 1151 (300 Series) 95W BX80684I58600K Desktop Processor Intel UHD Graphics 630.

It depends on prices. I am not interested in overclocking, especially since I wouldn’t know how, but if I can get the 8600k it would still be nice.


MOTHERBOARD

This is where it gets complicated, at least for me and that's where your advice would be welcome. I still have not yet decided if buying a Z370 board or one of the new B360 (I am not even sure if they are out yet). I am aware that with a non-K chip a Z370 is not necessary, but maybe one of the lower models could be an option.

What concerns me is that the new B360 are just that, new. Buying completely new hardware that is untested, can be a gamble. The Z370, on the other hand, has already been out for some time.

The other question is which brand? Here there seem to be conflicting opinions on the internet.

In the past I have always bought Asus boards, but for the coffee lake cpus they do not seem the best or only choice. The Z370 seem more expensive and I have not heard anything about their 360. Msi and Asrock I feel are not up to the standards as the other brands.

Gigabyte looks like a good choice, isn’t?

Gigabyte B360M DS3H or GIGABYTE B360 HD3, they seem to be a good choice for the i5 8400. But are they any good?

How about:

GIGABYTE Z370 HD3 (Intel LGA1151/Z370/ATX/M.2/Intel LAN/ALC892/HDMI/Motherboard)

GIGABYTE Z370 AORUS Ultra Gaming. Some people have suggested this one, but many have complained about this board, plus it is more expensive and I don’t need LED lights.

Is it still too early to buy a good, but cheaper MOBO for the new Intel 8th generation?

What motherboard would you suggest for one of the 2 above mentioned cpus

RAM

Considering the still very high prices of ram, for the time being I am stuck with 8GB of DDR4 (it could be upgraded to 16GB in the future, which is what I would like to have).

The speed will be 2400, but I wonder if 2666 would be better?

Thank you
 
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vultusprime

Member
May 28, 2011
26
3
71
Well, thank you for the reply but it does not help me in any way. If you follow the idea that there is always something better on the horizon then you simply spend your life waiting and never buy anything. I want to buy a PC now, those are my cpu options and I am still looking for a good motherboard for them.
 
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Batboy88

Member
Jul 17, 2018
72
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Asus and Gigabyte are ok if you want to go with them, other options as well. And if you do want to Overclock I would get a little better of a Board, usually better with Power Delivery, But then we get into who does it all better and a not as good vrm being used and or design.. As well you are looking at Custom loop stuff as well.
 
LTC8K6

LTC8K6

Lifer
Mar 10, 2004
28,520
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vultusprime said:
Well, thank you for the reply but it does not help me in any way. If you follow the idea that there is always something better on the horizon then you simply spend your life waiting and never buy anything. I want to buy a PC now, those are my cpu options and I am still looking for a good motherboard for them.
Click to expand...
It's not that what's on the horizon is better in this case, the 9400 for example only bumps base and turbo clocks by 100mhz over the 8400, but more that the announcement should clear up a few pertinent questions about chipset longevity and compatibility. The announcement may also shift pricing around. What everyone wants to know for sure is if the current 300 series chipsets will support the new chips, particularly the 8 core chip, should we want to upgrade. So far it looks like the 370 chipset probably will, but not those below it. Or, do we have to buy the new 390 boards?
 
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Charlie22911

Charlie22911

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Mar 19, 2005
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AMD has a known support window for their chipset and socket, where as Intel has earned some bad press for their lack of support and planned obsolesce lately.
There are many good reason to consider AMD, throw away any preconceptions of them because things have changed substantially.

There are also legitimate reasons to wait a bit to see what Intel has in its hand.

However, if you are already decided on the platform, the number one thing you should consider should be product support.
ASUS has been a nightmare for me, and Gigabyte support isn't very good either (in my experience). EVGA has very good support and ASRock has also been good to me.

The second most important factor should be having the most connectivity within your price range, don't get hung up on overclocking and other marketing.

To circle back to the point about waiting, there is an investigation underway over alleged price fixing among memory manufacturers. We don't know what the outcome will be, but it may inspire some price drops in the coming months.
So again, a wait-and-see approach may be wise short term.
 
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Batboy88

Member
Jul 17, 2018
72
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I don't know Still fine with Z270...just about every 7700k should do 4.8ghz and no vcore increase, and that's still pretty cool. And it will still run everything you throw at it...
 
V

vultusprime

Member
May 28, 2011
26
3
71
Thank you for the input and sorry for the late reply.
I understand your point
LTC8K6 said:
It's not that what's on the horizon is better in this case, the 9400 for example only bumps base and turbo clocks by 100mhz over the 8400, but more that the announcement should clear up a few pertinent questions about chipset longevity and compatibility. The announcement may also shift pricing around. What everyone wants to know for sure is if the current 300 series chipsets will support the new chips, particularly the 8 core chip, should we want to upgrade. So far it looks like the 370 chipset probably will, but not those below it. Or, do we have to buy the new 390 boards?
Click to expand...

But is is not certain that it will influence prices, at least right now. The same goes for memory prices:

Charlie22911 said:
To circle back to the point about waiting, there is an investigation underway over alleged price fixing among memory manufacturers. We don't know what the outcome will be, but it may inspire some price drops in the coming months.
So again, a wait-and-see approach may be wise short term.
Click to expand...
This may resolve nothing and it will not be short term.

I still want to get an i5 8400 or 8600K (depending on the overall cost of the build). But I am still considering the right MOBO. I am not interested in wifi or RGB lights. Maybe if possible the new USB 3.1 gen 2 type-c ports (but only if it not too expensive). I don't need all the bells and whistles, just a good and reliable motherboard.

I may not do any OC (at least not right now), but should I still buy a Z370?

People have suggested:

GIGABYTE H370M D3H LGA 1151 (300 Series) Intel H370 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.1 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

Asus Prime Z370

GIGABYTE Z370 HD3

thank you
 
dsplover

dsplover

Member
Nov 1, 2014
38
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Supermicro Q370 as long as you don’t need to OC.
Great option for 8700/8086k too.
But even the i3 8360k with this would be fun.
The i5 is the wiser cost per core CPU.
 
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